Comcast Looks To The Future With HomePoint VoIP

In a move that Fierce VoIP is calling a limited release by Comcast, the nations largest cable operator, of HomePoint, a converged VoIP/Router, it would appear that finally, after making all the needed in network (e.g. getting all the hardware and software to be the same in all markets) infrastructure work completed, Big C is ready to sell VoIP.

You may ask as Fierce did, “why?”

That’s simple. WiMax and LTE. Both are SIP at their voice core and even really IMS for LTE. IMS is SIP for voice for the most part so as Comcast rolls out Mobile WiMax they can more easily offer a truly converged service, and one that offers the kind of features we see from Google with Google Voice.

Since Comcast and Google are both investors in Clearwire, and since Android is already becoming more than a mobile-GSM handset, you can start to see long term roadmaps coming together where Comcast in many parts of the country becomes a single source provider vs. AT&T and Verizon.

In many ways, if you look at the map, Comcast is the Bell System recast, albeit with a more technology/IP orientation, while AT&T has chosen to be still in the analog world more than in the IP world with a converged play.

That will change by 2011 when the new Ma Bell/AT&T rolls out their concept of ONE Network. Then the battle will begin and AT&T will start to regret ever selling Comcast their cable TV networks.

This particular trial, is very typical in the cable industry. Pick a market as a control site and then add a few more. Gain feedback and then push it out across the country. It’s smart and a good way to roll out a product that works from the time it’s installed. In many ways this is the market AT&T would have owned had they continued marketing CallVantage. Oh, well.